Assessment
Questionnaire

How Common is Misdiagnosis?

Although there is a general feeling
that misdiagnosis is quite common,
with many people giving anecdotal accounts of their own experiences,
it is difficult to get exact data.
Whereas there are many studies of adverse drug events
and nosocomial infections,
there is a relative lack of misdiagnosis studies.

A study of Patient Safety Incidents (PSIs) by HealthGrades
found that
"Failure to Rescue", meaning failure to diagnose and treat in time,
was the most common cause of a patient safety incident,
with a rate of 155 per 1,000 hospitalized patients.
Unfortunately, the study did not further break down
statistics into the types of misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis or other factors.
1

The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) commissioned
a phone survey in 1997 to review patient opinions
about medical mistakes.
Of the people reporting a medical mistake (42%),
40% reported a "misdiagnosis or treatment error",
but did not separate misdiagnosis from treatment errors.
Respondents also reported that their doctor failed to make
an adequate diagnosis in 9% of cases,
and 8% of people cited misdiagnosis as a primary causal
factor in the medical mistake.
Loosely interpreting these facts gives
a range of 8% to 42% rate for misdiagnoses.

Misdiagnosis rates in the ICU or Emergency Department
have been studied,
with rates ranging from 20% to 40%.
These misdiagnosis rates are likely to be higher than
the overall health care misdiagnosis rate because
of the time-critical and serious nature of the diagnosis
under these crisis conditions.

Malpractice and misdiagnosis:
Another interesting fact is that a large proportion of malpractice
cases are based on misdiagnosis or delayed treatment
of serious conditions.
Davenport (2000) lists the top five
malpractice-risk conditions in order of prevalence
as myocardial infarction, breast cancer, appendicitis,
lung cancer and colon cancer,
and notes that almost all suits are cases of misdiagnosis or
mismanaged diagnostic tests
leading to delayed treatment.
Myocardial infarction and appendicitis
are likely to be related to emergency department visits,
whereas the three litigation-prone types
of cancers are more common in general physician work.

Misdiagnosis in the emergency department:
The rates of misdiagnosis in the emergency department or ICU
have been studied.
The majority of lawsuits involved the ED
and of these, the majority involved delayed treatment
and therefore presumably related to misdiagnosis.
One study found a rate of 20% of misdiagnosis in the ICU.
Other studies have found that it is relatively common
for serious conditions such as acute myocardial infarction (heart attack),
stroke,
pulmonary embolism,
meningitis,
or appendicitis to be misdiagnosed in emergency care.
For example, non-typical presentations such as
a young person or
a woman having a heart attack are less likely to be correctly diagnosed.
Furthermore, an ECG test does not rule out a heart attack even if it is normal,
and some physicians rely too heavily on this test.

Appendicitis is another common and serious misdiagnosis in the ED.
Initial misdiagnosis rates of appendicitis in children
are high, ranging
from 28% to 57% under 12s
to almost 100% misdiagnosis for appendicitis in infants
(Rothrock et al, 2000).

Misdiagnosis and biopsy:
Pathology slide tests involve a workup of a sample onto a slide
and then a manual viewing
by a pathologist, or more commonly a technician.
They are commonly used to identify abnormal cells,
such as in cancers.
This inherently human process has a clear risk of error
and can lead to misdiagnosis.
For example, in a December 1999 study of 6,171 slides,
Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore
found a 1.4% error rate in pathology tests
in patients referred for cancer treatment.
Of the 86 total misdiagnoses,
20 had benign tumors misdiagnosed as malignant
and presumably received unnecessary cancer treatment.
An earlier Johns Hopkins study of prostrate cancer biopsies
found an error that ruled
out cancer in six out of 535 cases.

Misdiagnosis and autopsy studies:
One useful way to detect misdiagnosis is to perform
an autopsy,
and then compare the original diagnosis
with that found at autopsy.
Various studies have found major differences,
with discrepancy rates as high as 40% in
the Medical ICU (CHEST, February 2001).
This rate of 40% in the ICU is undoubtedly higher
than the rate for general medicine because of the
difficult and often multifactorial nature of serious ICU cases.
Unfortunately, autopsy rates are declining
for various reasons and the opportunity
to measure misdiagnosis in this way is reduced.

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use. Information provided on this site is for informational purposes only; it is not intended as a substitute for advice from your own medical team. The information on this site is not to be used for diagnosing or treating any health concerns you may have - please contact your physician or health care professional for all your medical needs. Please see our Terms of Use.